The month of May ended with the most unexpected of twists: a maligned Ontario Progressive Conservative minister justifying her government's austerity agenda by evoking a revered figure from Canada's political left.

The Financial Post recently published an opinion article penned ostensibly by Lisa MacLeod, Ontario's minister of children, community and social services.  It asserted that the late Tommy Douglas, the most idolized left-wing politician in Canada's history, had recognized the merit of running balanced budgets and avoiding debt as Saskatchewan's premier.  After all, debt eventually has to be repaid with interest and surely those future debt payments would be better spent improving hospitals, schools and other public services.  Avoiding the temptation to fund today's social programs with debt, one could argue, is an investment in tomorrow's common good.

Besmirching the Ontario NDP by citing their historic icon was a cheeky jab, but it carried a serious declaration: that the current party has gone philosophically astray.  Even Douglas, the article implied, would likely condemn the current NDP's desire to continue deficit spending.

But do the Ontario Progressive Conservatives genuinely want what Douglas purportedly sought a half-century ago: robust social programs provided without government debt?  Taking a broad perspective, the answer would appear to be: no, they do not.  They seek less government and fewer public services.  Balancing the books is not the end, but rather the means to justify an ideological axe being taken to Ontario's social programs.

Ironically, the greatest revelation that the Ontario PCs do not share Douglas' vision has emerged from Premier Doug Ford being fiscally reckless, by violating government contracts and forgoing large revenue streams.  First, Ford has shown that he is willing to break existing public contracts even if the benefit is barely more than virtue-signaling to his voting base despite that such actions conflict with the Conservative mantra of being prudent with the public purse (and, ironically, illustrating that the province is not actually "open for business").

For example, Ford's imposed changes at Hydro One, including abandoning the planned takeover of American energy company Avista Corp., will cost Ontario residents at least $137 million in fines.  Cancelling the White Pines wind farm, despite that the decade-long project was almost complete and nearly half of the turbines had already been erected before legislation was enacted, could cost Ontario $100 million in penalties.  The government prematurely ending its contract with the Beer Store looks to trigger hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.  And breaking 758 renewable energy contracts will also likely result in hefty payouts.

In addition to incurring the costs of violating legal agreements, the Ford government has also shown it is happy to relinquish large revenue streams due to rigid ideological beliefs.  The elimination of the province's cap-and-trade climate program an emissions scheme that Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigned for federally in 2008 is expected to reduce Ontario's revenue by $3 billion over the next four years, according to the Financial Accountability Office.  Further, an alternative climate plan proposed by the Ford government would cost twice as much as the new federal carbon pricing scheme according to Canadians for Clean Prosperity, an environmental think tank.

If the Progressive Conservatives still subscribe to the principle of fiscal responsibility, it is they and not the Ontario NDP who have gone astray.

With upwards of a billion dollars likely to be paid in compensation for contract violations, three billion dollars of lost revenue from cap-and-trade, and a proposed substitute climate plan that would burden Ontario's economy by an additional $120 million each year, Doug Ford suddenly doesn't seem like a politician very concerned with the province's bottom line.  These avoidable costs will have to be paid by Ontario residents, either through additional provincial debt or by exacerbating the already-considerable cuts to public services.

Imagine the social programs that could have been spared had this $4 billion figure not been needlessly squandered.  Consider the hit to education: nearly $1 billion eliminated from elementary and secondary funding, $440 million from universities and colleges, $600 million from student grants, and $100 million from school repairs.  Or reflect on the impact to the province's most vulnerable residents, to whom $150 million in social assistance has been slashed.  How about the $1 billion removed from Toronto Public Health, an agency responsible for diseases, immunization, food safety and water quality?  Perhaps the $335 million axed from mental health funding, or maybe the $133 million withdrawn from Legal Aid Ontario.

All of these important funding commitments could have emerged unscathed for less than the amount of money avoidably wasted by the Ford government.

For this imprudent regime to attempt to justify its actions by referencing the legacy of Tommy Douglas is farcical.  Its agenda is to tear public services down, or reduce them through attrition; instead, Douglas built such programs, many of which came to be implemented across the entire country, while being scrupulous with public funds.

Although the Progressive Conservative government should be commended for striving to end deficit spending and for tackling Ontario's financial disarray, other reckless decisions will compound the brutality of its austerity agenda.  The province's poorest residents will be most affected if the slashing of public services is further intensified, rendering "For the People" into a cruel mockery of a slogan.

If Premier Ford is so infatuated with unearthing government waste, perhaps his next target should be the profligacy stemming from his own impulsive agenda.

Photo Credit: Jeff Burney, Loonie Politics